Monica E. Smith

Saturday, August 14, 2010

I thought of you todayWhen happenstance brought meTo that road we last walkedAnd to the memory of your last breaths,How I held your sweet, warm headIn my hands and whispered to youTrying desperately to comfort you,Willing myself to believe You would be all right,Willing you to know how muchYou were loved, how muchJoy you brought to the lives Of my children, to us all

I thought of you, today, buriedUnder your beloved pear treeAnd how you now nourish itAs it had once nourished you,And I missed your playfulnessAnd the laughs you gave usMissed the wonderful sillinessOf your sprightly, unfettered lifeAnd yet the depth you brought To my own, and I knew I had been blessed

And I remembered my tearsFalling onto your limp ears then,And how I prayed you had felt them,Because in feeling themYou would have understood with certaintyThe value of your life,Believed without hesitation your worth,Known beyond any doubtThat you had been a good dog

*Sadie was killed during a walk on a country road with her family. We could see nothing, as she had run a bit ahead of us; we heard only a screech, a thud and the squealing tires as the driver sped away from the scene. We found her lying by the side of the road as we ran over a hill to her side, in shock and not believing what had just happened. Though Sadie died in 1992, she returns to our thoughts again and again. She was a blessing to our family, and a very good dog who will always be missed.